Faded Photographs
by hello heartbreak
Summary: They were all happy, once. Maybe.


_Author's Notes: Spur of the moment thingy. Always wanted to write something like this but never sat down to type it out. Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, neither do I own Mariah Carey's "Fly like a bird". Tenses will be hopping about because that's the way I write stuff. Enjoy._

**Faded Photographs.  
**_They'd tell the most if they weren't so faded. _

---

They were very happy.

Four best friends in a kindergarten, running around in a playground. One falls; the rest helps her up and sets her onto a swing. The poofy-haired boy pushes her back gently while the older girl says comforting things, just like a mother would. The pretty one – one cannot tell the gender because of the sweet features – just stares but it can be seen that he's trying to help her get better in his own silent way. A simple school fieldtrip, and they have to pair up so that they won't get lost. Poofy-haired gets Motherly-girl, Crybaby gets Pretty Boy (by now one can tell that he is indeed a male). Halfway through the trip, it rains and everyone has to get back into the bus under the frantic supervision of their teacher. Somehow, in the frenzy, Pretty Boy loses sight of his partner but sees Motherly-girl standing in the middle of nowhere looking stranded and lost, so he goes up to her and herds her onto the bus, his pale hand gripping her tanned one tightly as he leads her back to where everyone else is.

From a distance away, Poofy-haired stares at the scene that unfolds before him. He is glad that his partner is safe with his best friend in the world, but he is also sad. At three years old, "sad" is the only word he can use to describe the sinking feeling in the pits of his stomach, the feeling that he gets when he's lost his favorite toy to someone else.

Later, he grows up to realize that he should have used "jealous" instead of "sad".

---

Gradually, the group of four best friends increases in number, and now there are around eight best friends, including the siblings of the pioneers as well. They're getting along very finely, unlike their brothers who bicker to no end.

"What's that?" the leader would ask, pointing at something in a textbook.

"It's a T-Rex, stupid."

"I AM NOT STUPID, IDIOT!"

"Wow, how creative."

"SHUT UP, ISHIDA YAMATO!"

"You're polluting the environment with your noise, dear Taichi." Yamato would reply calmly.

And then they'd get into a ridiculous fist fight which would have to broken up by the-

"GET OFF ME, SORA!"

-wonderful being that was Sora, who was also unbelievably strong and determined, always managing to pull the two boys apart without much effort. Three, maybe four minutes later, they would stare at each other and the dirt on their faces, and burst out laughing before punching each other playfully on the arm before becoming best of friends again.

At that point in time, everyone admired Sora – she was pretty, nice, smart and sporty all in one package. On the other hand, the other older girl in the group was snotty, air-headed, and the only sport that she did was walking. No doubt she was pretty; probably prettier than Sora herself, but people just tended to notice her nose (which stuck up in the air), and the mean things that she said about others.

Of course, the four original members of the group knew each other inside out, and were very aware of that girl's beautiful heart, which she kept hidden underneath layers of childish arrogance. It was just a result of spoiling that she'd turned out that way, really.

Anyway. This particular girl admired Sora too, and aspired to be like her although she never told anyone. At that moment after fight, she was left staring at the orange-head somewhat wistfully until someone shouted:

"Come on Mimi! We have to get to class!"

And she was snapped out of her thoughts as she trotted towards the others, attempting to plaster a wide grin on her face like she'd seen Sora do so many times, but ended up looking like she'd just swallowed a dozen lemons.

---

Time goes by rather quickly, especially when your life is filled with colorful activities in school. The group of eight friends has extended once more, because Taichi's and Yamato's siblings can't just mix with their elder brothers' friends; and so people like Daisuke (who wants desperately to become like Taichi) and Miyako join the group. But there is a big barrier – some are now in different schools, and the group isn't really a group anymore, since everyone is just too busy to get together all at once.

Relationships form, and suddenly Taichi's little sister is the center of attraction; she has become someone like Sora – nice, pretty, artistic. He's really proud of her, albeit a little protective, since she's the only sibling he's ever had. But she isn't the only one experiencing the birds and the bees.

It's strange how everyone seems to be hooked up with_ someone_ (you could doubt the existence of those someones), once you step through the threshold of lower to higher education. The soccer team was discussing who had the prettiest girlfriend when Taichi was pulled into the topic of discussion while he was still in the showers.

**The Topic of the Day:** Does our captain Yagami Taichi have a girlfriend?

Around 95 percent said no, and pissed off our dear Poofy-haired friend very much. Without wearing more than a towel, he slung a wet hand over the first girl that came into sight, and declared her as his girlfriend since a very long time ago (note: VERY LONG TIME AGO, as he'd emphasized on these words with a large fake grin on his face).

What a shock he received when he realized that the girl was Takenouchi Sora, and someone that he indeed knew from a VERY LONG TIME AGO. (It also hadn't occurred to his simple mind that she was probably the only girl who came to practise soccer from time to time.) To his surprise, she didn't shove him away, but accepted the half-hug very graciously, and even blushed like a girlfriend would.

After that incident, no one ever dared to bother Captain Yagami about being gay with the lead singer of The Teenage Wolves ever again.

And so, it became known that Taichi and Sora were a pair, and no one was really surprised since they seemed so "meant-to-be" anyway.

---

No one knew that the pretty blond singer didn't attend band practice that day because he was too busy smashing his guitar to bits against his bedroom wall. He ended up with splinters in his fingers and a broken guitar.

At that particular moment, Ishida Yamato wanted to strangle Taichi and break his spine against the wall like he'd done to his guitar. Thankfully, he was much more sensible than the victim of his unpleasant thoughts (Taichi would have gone and done it before you could say, "Hey look, it's Daisuke in a loincloth!"), and never _did_ break his best friend's spine.

But he _did_ manage to get attached to someone too. The lucky girl was none other than the Queen herself – Tachikawa Mimi, the one who came to school in the nicest clothes ever, and had a personal chauffeur. They'd been sitting on a bench at the school garden during lunch and looking very bored when he popped the question.

"Hey, are you bored?"

She nodded in response, lifting her head to stare at the fluffy clouds above them.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" he'd blurted out in a very non-Yamato way, shocking even himself as his ice-grey eyes widened ever so slightly. Mimi had been shocked. Truly shocked. But like him, she'd learnt how to mask her emotions under the strict training of her rich parents (a true lady must never let her jaw hang open), and read those grey eyes carefully and accurately.

She knew she wasn't the one he wanted. In fact, she'd known it since the day at the zoo. And of course, throughout the years in which they grew and cried and yelled at one another. The way he spoke was different, when he spoke to _her_. The tone was gentler, and a small smile always seemed to appear on his fine-chiseled face as he subconsciously placed a hand on her arm.

It pained Mimi so. She felt so much like the lead actress of some soap opera, in which her love was so unrequited. By then, she'd grown into someone who was less snobbish, and more tolerant of the emotions of others. And so, she said "Yes", trying her best to mask yet again the bitterness in her tone.

She succeeded and he didn't suspect a thing.

So the little masquerade went on for a few months. Summer gradually died out, and the green leaves turned red, gold, orange before fluttering down onto the ground to form heaps of dead leaves and being sent away to the incinerator before they could decay. Taichi found that he was really falling in love with the girl he'd pulled into the locker room so conveniently just to stand in as his "girlfriend" to prove that he was straight. In fact, he'd been head over heels since she first stepped into his kindergarten class and proclaimed that her name was Sora. He liked the sky, he liked Sora too.

---

But then there was a small problem. Sora was still under the impression that they were just putting up an act, for the sake of Taichi's male ego. The blush had been a wonderful effect, she would admit it herself. It was always nice to know that you could act under certain circumstances. The truth was that she couldn't visualize herself with Taichi. She tried hard, and zoomed in on certain angles, even tried artistic shots, but he just couldn't fit in with her in a single mental photograph. They were like magnets. And both of them were North Poles – they were too alike; they were too repelling.

They were not "meant-to-be", like everyone else had perceived them to be.

That was why she wasn't asking herself "What the hell am I doing?" when she found herself pressed against a tree (yes, how clichéd indeed) as Yamato's lips came crashing down upon hers, and she let her own mouth open a little wider, encouraging him to advance further. Her fingers were entangling themselves within his soft blond locks when she realized there was someone watching them, from a distance away where the school gates stood.

His chocolate eyes just closed as he met her gaze from under Yamato's grasp, and he turned to walk off, without even turning around once.

Sora was very frightened to find that she had no remorse at all. No regrets about cheating on someone she loved very much (just in a different way), or cheating on a friend that she kept dear to her heart. She just wanted to get what she _really_ wanted, this time.

---

It came as no surprise to Mimi when she found out that Taichi had broken up with Sora; it had been a "fake" romance to begin with anyway. Of course, on her end Yamato had called to say "thank you very much, but I don't need you anymore because my beloved has realized my greatness and returned to my side". Nah, he didn't really say that. The "thank you" part was true, because he was really grateful to Mimi for being such a good sport and handling his temperaments, and he'd said "sorry" because he knew he'd been a bastard to her.

There was nothing more to do than to accept his apology and shrug the whole damned relationship off as though it was just dust on her shirt.

It's midnight and she finds herself in the playground where the four of them once played and she'd fallen down, only to be helped up by Yamato. Yes, it had been Yamato who'd stretched out a hand to pull her up first. The others had just followed along after that. Illuminated by sunlight, he'd seemed like an angel (together with his blond hair) to her. She sank into the seat of the swing, feeling much heavier than before, in terms of both body weight and matters of the heart.

She finds it funny that she doesn't jump out of her seat when she feels a light push from someone behind her so that she can kick off and start her momentum. She also finds it funny that she knows exactly who it is, at midnight, in a stupid playground with a flickering streetlight that makes her think of a lousy horror film. For all she knew the person pushing her could've been a scary and vengeful ghost out to eat her soul or something.

But no, she knows that the person is Taichi, because his "style of pushing" is still the same as the poofy-haired little boy from kindergarten. They don't say anything in the dead of the winter night (no, there is no snow like in the proper movies; they are running low on production that night); one just pushes and the other just swings higher and higher and hopes that she can soar into the night sky like a bird.

And then, she starts to sing.

_Fly like a bird  
__Take to the sky  
__I need You now Lord  
__Carry me high_

After a while, he joins her, because somehow both of them know the lyrics to that particular song. He sucks, and sounds like a frog in a frying pan, about to be roasted to death. She has a melodious voice, like a princess.

_The Princess and the Frog._ She laughs out loud, halting her singing and her swinging, and the lack of momentum causes her to crash directly into Taichi's abdomen, and he falls backwards onto the ground with her following soon after. It would seem romantic because his arms are around her as they connected with the ground, but in actual fact it really isn't. His trained arms had unintentionally hugged her too hard, forcing the air out of her lungs, and her elbows had connected with his stomach in the worst possible way.

So yes, it is a very compromising position that absolutely no one would want to be in.

They manage to scramble up after much struggling and elbowing (in which several swear words are heard from the both of them), and end up glaring at one another, hazel blaring against chocolate. But her anger dissipates first, and she breaks into a smile gradually. A smile which quickly breaks down into a frown that he recognizes from many years of experience.

"Damn it, Meems. Just cry already," he comments very unprofessionally, although using the affectionate nickname that he reserves specifically for her, and gets elbowed again.

Yet, his words have a magical effect and she's in tears before she can even realize that the salty liquid running down her face is the products of her bottled-up sorrow. Very awkwardly, he pulls her towards him clumsily and pats her back while holding her close to his chest. The action is hardly intimate, with the amount of clothing they're wearing, but the both of them find themselves blushing like a bunch of schoolgirls; Taichi staring into the starless sky and Mimi staring at her shoes.

Fickle-minded teenagers indeed.

As a young child, one surely must have touched fire before, and withdrawn one's hand almost immediately because of the surging pain that the heat caused to the tender and young skin that one had at that age. This was a great analogy for the Mimi and Taichi's situation at the moment. They'd dabbled in relationships (ones with a rather queer starting), and gotten burnt by the fire, so there was no way that they would suddenly get together and become partners just after one night of swinging in the playground.

But they would try again, after a period of healing. Through quarrels, through tears, through make-ups, through silent swinging in the playground once again, perhaps, they would work out something just fine.

Snapshots of the lives of these four best friends – getting all muddy and dirty in a sandbox, going on various fieldtrips, graduating from lower education with the funny square hats, going to Yamato's first concert, winning a first soccer championship, the tense and fake grins during a group session, going to different universities and not losing touch, Sora and Yamato getting married with Taichi and Mimi smiling genuinely in the candid photos, gradually these would fade under the attack of the sun. Film by film, they would disappear into thin air, disintegrating into mere dust, but as long as these memories are kept dear to their hearts, there's nothing to worry about, really.

_To readers: Terrible ending, ain't it? Please review anyway, since you've reached so far already. XD You can all pelt me stones or something, for making you waste your time…_


End file.
